How Gardeners Stop Squirrels From Ruining Ripe Fruit—And How You Can Too

Who doesn’t love plucking a ripe peach from a peach tree? Or enjoying a pear straight from the tree and still warm from the sun? Unfortunately, squirrels enjoy these sweet treats just as much as humans, which means your fruit harvest could end up with little squirrel bites if you don’t have a plan to keep them away. Additionally, squirrels can cause damage to buds before they bloom and get a chance to turn into fruit, and they are also known to damage bark.

But what’s the best way to deter squirrels from turning your fruit trees into food? The answer depends on whether or not they’ve discovered your trees.

“It is easier to discourage squirrels from feeding on an apple than to stop them from feeding,” says John Ball, professor at South Dakota State University and the state’s Forest Health Specialist. “Once they have decided to feed on a tree or its fruit, only physical barriers will stop them.”

Whether or not you’re currently fighting squirrels or making a proactive plan, two gardening experts weighed in on several of the most effective (and humane!) ways to keep squirrels out of fruit trees. Here’s what they had to say.

How to Keep Squirrels Away From Fruit Trees

Finding that squirrels have already wreaked havoc on your fruit trees is frustrating, but these humane methods can help keep your trees rodent-free.

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Isolate the Fruit Trees

If your fruit trees are all huddled together, you’ve created an easy canopy for squirrels to cruise from tree to tree. While they can always climb from the ground, it’s more effort for them to go down one tree and back up the next than it is to jump from one to another. 

“Squirrels can easily jump 6 feet from tree to tree, so prune fruit trees to create gaps,” Ball says. “The better exposure to light from the pruning will also improve fruit production.”

Use Baffles

A baffle is one of the most effective barriers to prevent squirrels from getting into a fruit tree, particularly if you pair it with pruning that prevents jumping from tree to tree. The baffle is simply a smooth piece of plastic or metal, wrapped around the trunk, that ensures the squirrel has nothing to grip onto as it tries to climb.

Ball explains, “Baffles will work to keep squirrels from climbing the trunks as long as they cannot access the canopy from branches. Commercial ones are better than homemade ones.”

He adds that a baffle can girdle a trunk if it’s installed improperly or left on too long, so it’s not a set it and forget it for years-to-come solution.

Hang Silver Streamers

Squirrels are spooked by reflective surfaces, so shiny silver streamers hanging from your fruit trees will send them looking for a new place to forage.

Dominique Charles, owner and garden consultant at Plots and Pans, suggests, “I add silver streamers to the tree branches to scare both squirrels and birds away. If I still had CDs, they would be the perfect items to hang from tree branches.”

Spray Aromatic Oils

Depending on the size of your fruit tree, spraying aromatic oil around it may deter squirrels. They hate the scent of peppermint oil and will generally stay away when it’s present.

However, the downside is that you’ll end up reapplying the oil often, especially during a rainy season.

Wrap Wire Around the Tree Trunk

A similar deterrent to a baffle is using wire wrapped around the trunk.

“I’ve used rabbit wire at the base of the tree to keep them away,” Charles shared. “I wrapped the wire around the base of the tree, giving it about an inch or so of open space between the wire and the trunk.”

Use Motion-Activated Sprinklers

This isn’t a low-effort deterrent, but installing motion-activated water sprinklers can help keep squirrels away from your fruit trees. Ideally, the sprinkler should go off whenever there’s motion in the tree, and it will send the squirrels running.

But make sure you turn it off before you head over to the tree, or you could end up getting an unexpected shower.

Use Tree Nets

If the squirrel problem gets bad enough, then a tree net might be your best solution. This is a net that fully drapes over the tree and is secured at the bottom so squirrels can’t scoot in that way either.

While this is effective, it does come with a major downside—it makes accessing the fruit nearly as difficult for you as it is for the squirrels.